


Twenty Years

by sprstarinfrance



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, future fix-it-ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 04:00:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8313217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprstarinfrance/pseuds/sprstarinfrance
Summary: Will’s quest to remain anonymous in Star City (especially from his father) is complicated by the Queen family’s constant need to crash into his life. (A Portrait of the Queen Family over the course of a few months).





	1. Plans

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, I'm the queen (ha! pun) of posting new things before I finish my other stories. OSH and TWN haven't really been abandoned, I will work on them again... it's just that I've been using this story as a way to deal with certain... feelings... I've had with the show lately (or since mid season last season), and probably a bit of annoyance of knowing that if I read a comment on any article about Felicity online about 75% of them are bashing the character, because of course, Olicity and Felicity are at the root of all the problems of the show.... 
> 
> Anyways.... 
> 
> This is sort of inspired by the the British show Flowers (or rather a sentence I liked from a review of the show), although I'm not really sure why, they really aren't too similar. 
> 
> I apologize for overabundance of parallels. I probably should have just called this story that.

“Clayton!”

 

Will woke up to Lisa, one of the emergency nurses, shoving a file in his face, “Don’t worry it’s just a broken arm.”

                                    

He yawned rubbing at his blurry eyes; his second attempt at a quick nap in the last twelve hours once again a complete failure. “Just a broken arm? Did I fall asleep and wake up in Oz?”

 

She rolled her eyes, snorting, “No. It’s a normal crazy day in Star City. But Taylor wants you on this. It’s one of the Mayor’s kids. She wants to stay on his good side, hoping to get some funding for the new children’s wing. The price of being the golden boy, right?”

 

Will nodded barely listening as he opened the file, nearly dropping it on the ground when he read the name of the patient.

 

“You okay?” Lisa said forcing him to glance up at her, “Do you need to sit down or something? You look a little sick.”

 

He shook his head slamming the file closed, “No. I’m good. I got it.”

 

After giving him two thumbs up, he knew she meant sarcastically, she disappeared down the hall, giving him the moment he needed to internally freak out in private.

 

It had only been a matter of time until it would catch up to him. He knew that going in when he decided to do his residency at Starling General Hospital. He was only surprised he had managed to get away with it for almost a year.

 

Although Star City was not quite as bad as when terrorist attacks had shook the city every year decades ago, it still wasn’t a city sane people moved too. Crime was still pretty high, and if the high volume of people coming in the ER at all hours was any proof, people were still getting hurt and in all sorts of situations.

 

Even the hospital administrator, Elaine Taylor, had called asking if he was serious when he applied. He had graduated top of his class from Ivy Town University, and could have had his pick of any hospital in the country, but for some reason he picked an understaffed and underfunded hospital in city that still had some of the highest crime rates in the country.

 

He was probably crazy, but that’s not why he moved to Star City.

 

It had been the video.

 

He was 24 when he found it, hidden in a box under some sweaters in his mother’s closet.

 

Well, not so much that he had found it, rather it had found him, falling off the self causing a chain reaction that knocked loose a myriad of other items, all of them landing on top of him.

 

At the time it felt like the prefect metaphor for his life. Everything was falling apart.

 

It had started with the rejection letter from John Hopkins a month earlier. He knew it had been a long shot to start with, and had applied to several other schools, but it had been his number one so the disappointment still stung pretty hard.

 

Being a doctor had been his dream for a while.

 

Well, it had been his realistic dream.

 

Playing professional baseball had been the original plan, but a career ending knee injury his senior year of college had changed that.

 

However, he had always wanted to help people. He could even pinpoint the moment he knew it too. It had been the night the Green Arrow saved him when he was a kid. He used to carry around the action figure his mother bought him around for years after that as a symbol, to summer camp, to the various volunteer trips he took over the years, to Michigan State on a full sports scholarship, to the orphanage he worked at in South Africa the summer after his junior year, to Med School and even to Star City later on, although he had shoveled it in the back of his closet as some sort of act of rebellion.

 

He had worked his ass off graduating from college with a 4.0, and had spent the three years after that studying for his MCATS while assistant coaching at his old high school and picking up other odd jobs trying to save up money.

 

He had a plan, which is probably why everything fell apart so quickly. Get into John Hopkins, propose to Kelly after she gets her doctorate, residency at a prestigious hospital, get married, give his mom some grandkids, and basically live as happily as he could ever after.

 

Of course Kelly had broke up him with the day after the rejection letter. They had somehow managed to survive though all of high school, and even being at undergrad on opposite sides of the country, her at Berkley, and him in Michigan. And after being together for almost a decade, he had thought she was the one. He even had the ring picked out.

 

She didn’t even bother calling him, sending him the genetic, _we’ve drifted apart, we aren’t the same people we were when we first dating, blah, blah, t_ ext. It sounded like bullshit, and after some cyber stalking, he knew it was definitely bullshit, finding several photos of her kissing some bearded guy he met once from her doctorate program that had always seemed way too interested in her.

 

Although neither of those things had been nearly as terrible as losing his mother to a drunk driver.

 

It had been a small service, his mother didn’t really have a lot of friends, before he started high school they had moved around a lot, and she mostly kept to herself. He didn’t even know how to get into contact with his grandparents or if they were still around.

 

As if the grief hadn’t been enough, crushing debt followed. He didn’t have much time to get her house in order before he had sell it to pay the bills.

 

Which had been when he found the video.

 

The box hadn’t hit him thankfully, but had fallen open on the ground along with the rest of the mess. As he picked up the items, he was seriously confused. Fake passports, with the names of Sandra and Conner Hawke, five hundred grand rolled up, a cell phone that looked like it was from 1991 and a thumb drive with his name on it.

 

There had been the first initial thought that his mother had been in some kind of trouble, it would have explained the constant moving around and her boarder line paranoia at times.

 

But the thumb drive was calling to him more then anything.

 

* * *

 

 

Ivy Town hadn’t been in his dream school, but they had a fairly new medical program, and he had excelled mainly because he used school as a means to avoid all his problems.

 

End of a ten-year relationship?

 

Study.

 

Dead mother?

 

Study.

 

Dead mother who had lied to him about his dad all his childhood?

 

Study.

 

Dad, who knew all about him, and said he couldn’t be apart of his life for blah, blah reasons.

 

Study.

 

His same absentee Dad, being the Green Arrow he had idolized his whole life?

 

It was a good thing he had four years.

 

* * *

 

 

Will clutched the file to chest taking a breath before entering one of the exam rooms. His year of silently stalking his dad from the same city could possibly end right now.

 

Maybe it was good thing.

 

Maybe it was time to finally face him.

 

He had barely opened the door when an older blonde woman in towering heels caught his arm, “Oh, thank god! It’s my grandbaby. She broke her arm, and my daughter is going to kill me. I swear this first time this has happened. I usually keep such a good eye on them and…”

 

“Nana, you have to let go of his arm.”

 

Will glanced over at the teenage boy flopped down in the one lone chair in the room, playing on a tablet. He knew that was Tommy Queen, fifteen, and some sort of genius who had graduated high school at like 11 or something. He knew who all the Queen kids were. After finding out about his dad, he had done his fair share cyber stalking, and given everything in his father’s past, his playboy years, his time on the island, twice being accused of being the Hood, his five terms as mayor, never mind everything on the Green Arrow, there was plenty to find.

 

He recognized the girl sitting on the exam table, as twelve-year-old Lian Queen, his father’s adopted daughter, from… somewhere. From what Will understood, they had adopted her completely out of blue when she was six months old.

 

There were two other daughters: Elizabeth, who was a high school senior, and another, Rowena, who was in first grade.

 

“Seriously Nana. Stop manhandling the doctor. He’s way too young for you.”

 

“Thomas John!” She scolded waving him off.

 

“I’m so sorry, Doctor…” She released the hold on his arm.

 

“Clayton.”

 

He took a sigh of relief when she didn’t seem to recognize the name.

 

A sniff from behind them alerted them to Lian, who was holding her arm, while very clearly trying to hold back tears, and to the real reason Will was here.

 

To treat her.

 

It didn’t matter that she was technically his sister and clearly didn’t know who he was; he still had taken an oath. And she had nothing to do with his obvious daddy issues.

 

“Okay, lets check that arm out.”


	2. Parenting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Parenting, why did we decide that was a good idea?”

His seven year old daughter, Rowena, skipped into the house, babbling about something, and although Oliver had been trying to keep up, he had lost her about twenty minutes ago.

 

“Isn’t that awesome Daddy?”

 

Her offered her smile, running his fingers through her dirty blonde curls briefly, “Of course, baby.”

 

Ro beamed up at him, “I know. He actually got to see the loin rip its throat out. I’m _so_ jealous! That’s got to be like the coolest thing ever!”

 

“Wait what!?”

 

He burrowed his eyes as she disappeared up the stairs to her room, muttering something about going to Africa, when another female voice spoke up.

 

“Mom is going to kill Nana.”

 

His middle daughter, Lian, stood in front of him her eyes raised in slight alarm. Now that she turning into a sarcastic preteen, her couldn’t help notice how similar she was to Roy. When she rolled her eyes, it was literally like looking into a mirror. It wasn’t necessarily alarming, she had inherited a lot of things from him, whether they noticed it or not. Although he long suspected she must have got the gangly, long limbs from her birth mother. At twelve she was already taller then Felicity.

 

They had been as open as they could be about her adoption. Felicity had worried that she would ask too many questions, ones they didn’t really have answers to. Like about her birth mom, Jade. Besides that she used to be the League of Assassins, a fact they couldn’t really share with her, they didn’t know much else about her. Roy hadn’t told them much of anything. He just said he was in trouble, and Lian needed to be kept safe.

 

She had asked them about Roy once, when she was younger, but brushed the subject off when he tried to talk her about it recently, “I’m sure Roy was probably an awesome person and loved me a lot… but _you’re_ my dad. Do we need to talk about this? Doctor Who starts in like in two minutes and I _hate_ missing the beginning.”

 

Felicity suspected the subject might come up again when she got older, but for now Oliver wasn’t really complaining. It was selfish, but he didn’t mind keeping her to himself.

 

Lian had her arms behind her back shifting slightly, “Dad, I’m serious. She’s got severe angry face. It’s not quite as bad as time she caught Tommy hacking into that gossip website because he was bored, but it’s still pretty bad.”

 

Oliver had longed suspected that Felicity wasn’t so much angry at his hacking as she was that she had caught him, but he knew she would never admit to it. Tommy had been mostly homeschooled, mainly because while intellectually he was a genius, he was still pretty immature, and they didn’t want to send an eight year old who still giggled at fart jokes to high school. They decided he was finally allowed to go away to college next year at sixteen, but he had yet to pick a school he wanted to transfer to.

 

Oliver knew he was leaning towards Ivy Town College, but he hadn’t the heart to tell Felicity that. She had convinced herself that their son was going to follow in her footsteps and go to MIT.

 

He sighed, not sure if he even wanted to get in the middle of whatever Felicity and Donna were fighting about, but would end up either way. “What happened?”

 

Lian winched, slowly pulling her arm in front of her, as he took a long look at the large cast wrapped around her skinny arm, “I fell….?”

 

The way she dragged it out had him convinced there was more to the story then what she was telling him, but at the moment he was more concerned with the injury.

 

“You okay?” He asked taking her arm in his gently and studying it.

 

Someone had already written something on it.

 

_You have failed this arm!_

There was crude drawing of what he suspected was supposed to be a figure shooting an arrow.

 

(He suspected Tommy).

 

“It doesn’t hurt too much. It’s just really itchy, and mom yells at me every I try to use a pen to scratch my arm. She thinks I’m going to get it suck in the cast, and then started rambling about needing to find some extra long tweezers…. “

 

“Felicity, you’re being ridiculous. It was just a broken arm!”

 

“I can’t believe you didn’t call me! She’s my daughter I should have been the one to …”

 

Lian made a face, shifting her head in the direction of Donna and Felicity’s voices, “Hours. Dad. Hours.”

 

Oliver sighed doubting the argument had literally been going on for hours, Lian was prone to over exaggeration, pulling her towards him, before kissing the side of her head, “I’ll talk to them. Don’t stick a pen up your cast.”

 

His daughter rolled her eyes with her whole head, trudging towards the family room, while he followed the yelling voices.

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” He gestured to Lian’s arm, as she leaned on the refrigerator watching as he made dinner. She had wandered into the kitchen ten minutes earlier claiming she was bored.

 

Oliver knew she was probably avoiding her homework, because much like how he was at her age, she really hated school. Unlike the rest of her siblings, she was the one they had to keep on. Tommy had a 4.0 in the online classes he was taking, Liza managed to keep a B average, and Ro would come home from school taking full speed about everything she was learning, so they weren’t really worried about her, but Lian would drag her feet. They had several calls from Starling Prep this year alone about her grades.

 

They knew she wasn’t stupid; Lian usually had her head in a book, and not just her go to _Harry Potter_ , but everything. He had once found her reading one of Tommy’s old college textbooks, and she had been known to join in when Felicity and Tommy were talking tech, but she just refused to apply herself.

 

“ _Daadddd_ ,” She drew it out, and he knew she was trying to avoid the subject, “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

 

“I know that baby, but I also know your hiding something from me,” He raised his eyebrows, knowing that his, ‘ _dad detecting’_ look as Felicity called it was the best way to get information out of any of his children.

 

She sighed, but still refused to answer.

 

“This wasn’t because of some stupid dare with Tommy?”

 

Felicity occasionally joked that Lian and Tommy were their Fred and George Weasley, because when they were younger they were consistently getting into trouble or terrorizing Liza. Now that they were older, they still banned together to terrorize Liza, but the nature of their trouble had turned into stupid stunts and inside jokes that no one could possibly understand.

 

When Roy had first approached them about Lian there hadn’t been much time to prepare Liza or Tommy for a new sister. Liza had treated her much the same way she treated her younger brother, with begrudging acceptation, but three-year-old Tommy had been pretty skittish around her, refusing to get too close, staring back at her in panic whenever she cried, often pulling on his or Felicity’s leg, asking if the baby was broken.

 

Everyone just thought it was just an adjustment period, but Oliver didn’t really believe that. Tommy had no problem with new people in his life, often wandering off at the playground to talk to other children, or even a stranger in the supermarket.

 

It wasn’t until Oliver found him in Lian’s crib in the middle of the night reading her a book that he figured out why Tommy was being so weird.

 

“Can we keep her?” Tommy asked as Oliver fought to get him back in his bed.

 

He had blinked, not sure why Tommy was worried about it, “Of course we’re keeping her. She’s a part of our family now.”

 

“But what about her other mommy?” His bottom lip quivered, as he started to sniff back tears, “What if she wants her back?”

 

“What are you talking about buddy?”

 

“Thea Thea said she was a bad person, and if she found Lian she’d take her away.”

 

Oliver pressed his lips together, not sure when he had heard that from Thea, making a note to tell her that she really had to be careful what she said around the kids once again, and this was just a little worse then Tommy repeating curse words.

 

He finally got Tommy wrapped up in his sheets, wiping away the tears on his son’s cheek, “No one is going to take her away. I won’t let them, I promise. Okay?”

 

Tommy nodded seriously, “Okay. I won’t let them neither, ‘cause I’m her big brother.”

 

Oliver had to chuckle a little at that, “I’m going to hold you to that buddy. Now lets go back to sleep.”

 

And Tommy kept his promise, for the most part. Lian rarely needed him to protect her.

 

Lian rolled her eyes, “Please, Tommy can’t make me do anything that I don’t want to do.”

 

While he knew that was true, Tommy liked to think he was he the was boss, but his sisters could kick his ass whenever they wanted, it still wasn’t an answer, “So whatever happened was your idea?”

She hit her head on the back of the fridge, “It was stupid. And I promise not to do it ever again, okay?”

 

“I’m not mad. Whatever happened, you know that right?”

 

“Fell off the roof.”

 

It was so quiet he barely heard it, “I’m sorry?”

 

“I fell off the roof.” She repeated, louder this time, “Tommy found these old Green Arrow videos from like 2015 or something. And you climbed up this wall and…”

 

Oliver really didn’t like were this conversion was going, “Lian….”

 

She shrugged, “I climbed up the drain pipe, and it broke and I….” His daughter made some sort of gesture that didn’t really make it look any better.

 

He cringed, as Lian went on, “I know. Even Tommy told me I was being stupid. And if Tommy is telling you that your being stupid, then you must really be doing something stupid.”

 

“Can’t disagree with that logic,” He muttered. In addition to Tommy’s failed attempts in the cyber criminal world, his best friends happened to the ‘terror twins’ the fond nickname Felicity had given to Barry’s overly hyper children. Between the three of them, the chaos they could cause was limitless.

 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

 

“Lian.” It took a couple of seconds to pull her attention back to him and admittedly it wasn’t the best parenting advice, but it was still important, “Never use the drain pipe.”

 

* * *

 

 

Liza came home from cheer practice after dinner in a terrible mood, flinging her duffle bag into the living room, not even bothering to notice if she had accidentally hit anything process.

 

When Oliver commented on this, she sent him a panicked look and pulled out her phone, “I really don’t have time for this right now. You don’t even understand what is going on right now.” And then walked out of the room.

 

“God,” Tommy grumbled, “She’s such a drama queen.”

 

“OMG. Someone stole my lip-gloss! I can’t leave the house, EVER AGAIN,” Lian brought up her uninjured arm up to her forehead, flopping back on the couch.

 

“Mom, you didn’t wash my _favorite_ shirt. I was going to wear that tomorrow! What am supposed to wear _now_?” Tommy mimicked, furthering Lian’s giggling.

 

“Okay, that’s enough,” Oliver interrupted, once he sensed they were probably going to get just a too mean.

 

“I hate you all!” Liza cried from the doorway, her footsteps echoing behind her as she ran off followed by a slamming door upstairs.

 

Felicity sighed, “I wish I knew what was going on with her. I mean, I was really grouchy at her age too, you know with all the black I wore, but she’s never happy. I don’t remember the last time I saw her smile at something.”

 

She was right, Oliver couldn’t remember the last time Liza had even seemed happy, maybe earlier in the year before Christmas. Where their once bubby, if not a little bossy daughter had been there now was an overly emotionally and extremely distant girl. Liza refused to talk about whatever was going on, and it was driving them crazy. Her siblings, however, didn’t seem to notice.

 

Oliver glanced over Tommy and Lian, neither looking very guilty, “Lay off.”

 

“Seriously, dad? It’s not my fault she can’t take a joke,” Tommy argued.

 

“It’s not a joke if someone is crying, Tommy.” He reminded them, “You’re going to apologize to her.”

 

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Seriously?”

 

“Now!”

 

He got up, but Lian made no motion move.

 

“You too. Go!”

 

* * *

 

 

After an hour of fighting with Ro about bedtime, (she conned him into reading her five chapters before she finally fell asleep), attempting to get Liza to talk him; all he got out of her was a ‘God, leave me alone Dad!’, and having to have yet another talk with Tommy, Oliver felt more exhausted then a night out in the hood ever could.

 

Felicity had already been in bed, typing on her tablet, pausing to look up at him, and when he shut the door, she started, “Our kids are going to kill me. Liza is constantly upset about everything. Tommy is going to get arrested for something stupid, Lian is going fall off a building and get herself killed, and I’m pretty sure Ro is a psychopath.”

 

“Felicity, breathe.”

 

She set the tablet down, rubbing at her eyes while he changed into his pajamas.

 

“Ro isn’t a psychopath…” He dragged on as Felicity continued to stare at him, “Okay, so she’s a little strange….”

 

“A little strange…. Oliver, she kept showing me videos of snakes eating other snakes the other day. “ She shuttered, “I can seriously live without ever seeing those again.”

 

He decided not to tell her about the loins, changing the subject, “You do realize you need to apologize to your mom.”

 

“I know,” She said rolling her eyes, “I completely overreacted, it’s just that… I don’t really want our children to follow in our footsteps, you know the illegal ones… does that make me a terrible person?”

 

“No,” He leaned over to peck her on the mouth as he crawled into bed with her, “I feel the same way. I just think that makes us sane parents.”

 

Oliver suspected that it was easier said then done. Lian didn’t seem like she wasn’t going to try to scale up a wall again, but she did ask him if she could take a martial arts class, so the idea hadn’t completely gone away. Tommy was already on his way to getting in trouble, hacking into everything, and nearly getting arrested for stupid shit with the Allen twins. He had no idea what was going on with Liza, and Ro, she was still young, but she’d probably start giving them a headache in five years or so.

 

“Parenting, why did we decide that was a good idea?” She muttered as she settled into his chest.

 

He chuckled, although he couldn’t help thinking about the one child he didn’t get to parent, out there somewhere in the world.


	3. Thea Thea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe it was a good thing she never had any children of her own; Oliver’s were enough to deal with sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter may be about my unresolved feelings towards my number one writing issue with Arrow, and surprisingly it's not the lying about having a kid drama, it's the Malcolm is your birth father, and despite all the things he's done - especially to you - it's okay, because he's your 'father thing'. ugh. I hope they decide to keep him on Legends for awhile. Hopefully Sara kicks his ass into a grave. 
> 
> I wrote this before I started watching This is Us, but damn, the writing on that show is good. Especially in how they've been handling Randall wanting to get to know his birth father/with him trying to keep the memory of the man who raised him alive.

She leaned over the couch to ruffle Tommy’s hair, “Look, it’s my favorite nephew.”

 

“I’m your only nephew, Thea Thea.” He muttered, distractedly flatting his hair, the as he played on his tablet, feet kicked up on the coffee table.

 

While she fought the urge to tease him for still calling her Thea Thea, (the name he given her as toddler) she couldn’t ignore the look that crossed her brother’s face. Thankfully, the kids didn’t pick up on it. Ro seemed intensely interested in a nature documentary on TV, and Lian had spread out across most of the couch, reading a battered copy of _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_ , while not very stealthy trying to poke her brother in the side with her toe.

 

“Are you sure you want to watch the kids for the weekend?” Oliver asked shuffling around in the closet in the family room. “I can always stay…”

 

Thea rolled her eyes, “Ollie, it’s not like they are babies anymore. I think I can handle it.” As much as she loved her brother’s brood, she never had openly volunteered to watch them all at once when they were younger, opting to only spend time with them one at a time.

 

However, she suspected this was less about him worrying about her and more about the fact Oliver didn’t want to go to Gotham this weekend.

 

Bruce Wayne didn’t always hit on her sister-in-law, but he did it frequently enough just to piss Oliver off, and the dumb pine tree hadn’t caught on to the fact yet. Also, she doubted it would end well if Oliver started something with Wayne when he was critical to not only QI, but the JLA operation.

 

“Don’t remind me,” Her brother grumbled struggling to pull down a suitcase, trying to dodge an assortment of sporting equipment balanced carefully on top of it, “I have two kids going away to college next year. I’m not ready.”

 

“Sorry to tell you this dad but you’re old,” Tommy added not moving his eyes away from the tablet, “You might as well embrace it. Soon you’ll have a full white beard, and I can tell my children you’re Santa Clause.”

 

Lian shot up, raising her uninjured arm in the air, “You have failed your youth!”

 

“That’s hilarious.” Oliver pressed his lips together, rolling his eyes, as Tommy held out his fist for his sister to bump, “You two should take that on the road.”    

 

Thea snorted, shrugging when her brother glanced in her direction.

 

“Keep an eye on those two,” He pointed over at them, “And don’t let Ro watch snake videos on YouTube… don’t ask.” He added when Thea raised her eyebrows in confusion.

 

“Oh, and Tommy is grounded,” Felicity added irritated as she walked into the room, dropping her suitcase on the ground, “He’s not allowed to leave this house for the next month. Or possibly forever. I haven’t decided yet.”

 

“I am?” He turned staring at her confused, “For what?”

 

Felicity tilted her head, “You know why, Tommy. I got a call from Barry.”

 

“Okay?” He shrugged, “You talk to Barry all the time.”

 

“Your just lucky Joe was able to get the charges dropped.”

 

“Oh that,” He winched as if he just remembered whatever he did, “Yeah, I’m totally grounded.”

 

Oliver leaned over, fingers already rubbing together, “What did he do this time?”

 

“What didn’t do he do?” She muttered not looking too happy at Tommy’s joking, rolling her eyes before walking out of the room, “Children should not be allowed to have superpowers.”

 

“Thomas John Queen.”

 

Thea almost smirked as Tommy completely cringed at Oliver’s serious voice; also at the use of the full name, her brother only did that when he was running on little patience. Her nephew slowly turned around, plastering on an unconvincing calm face, “Hey, Dad.”

 

Oliver raised his eyebrows pressing his lips together, “Charges?”

 

“I haven’t been caught yet.”

 

“Really not the point I’m trying to make here.”

 

Tommy shook his head, “Sorry, I mean, I won’t… they couldn’t prove anything. There was never any risk of anything…”

 

Oliver pinched his nose, squeezing his eyes closed for a second, “Again, that isn’t the point. You shouldn’t be doing anything in the first place.”

 

“Stay out of trouble, Roger that,” He faked saluted before flopping back around the couch, “Don’t worry old man.”

 

“Yeah, that isn’t happening,” Oliver muttered, rolling his eyes, “I sometimes toy with the idea of asking Barry to lock him in the pipeline without wifi.”

 

“Still not as bad as you were at his age,” Thea shrugged, “I mean he doesn’t drink, doesn’t try to sneak girls into his room, didn’t steal Dad’s car and …”

 

“Speedy,” Her brother said wearily, changing quickly when he noticed that Liza had walked into the room, “Hey baby girl.”

 

Liza only looked up from her phone for a second, and lieu of a greeting she out, “Hey, Aunt Thea can I come to the center some next week?”

 

After what happened to Roy, Thea felt like she needed to do something to honor him, and after years of different floundering careers, club owner, chief of staff for the mayor’s office, vigilante sidekick, failed college student, living off Malcolm Merlyn’s money and feeling like shit about it, she finally found her calling.

 

The Harper Foundation.

 

Originally set up as sort of an after school program for kids in the Glades, it had expanded into a national charity for education opportunities for kids in inner city neighborhoods. As proud as she was at it’s success, she preferred to spend her time at the Community Center that had started it all.

 

Although she knew the Undertaking and everything that followed wasn’t her fault, the years she let Malcolm into her life still felt like something she had to atone for, and helping the Glades, and using the money Malcolm had given her to start a charity, was her own personal fuck you to him.

 

“I don’t see why not.”

 

“Good, I need like five more hours of community service for graduation.”

 

Oliver shrugged sadly, after Liza walked off with barely a goodbye. She knew that Felicity and her brother were having a hard time with her lately.

 

Thea watched her leave the room out of the corner of her eye, “At least she didn’t ‘volunteer’ at a beauty pageant like you and Tommy did. I have no idea how you got away with that.”

 

“And I don’t know how you were able to use your _court mandated_ community service as yours?” He countered raising his eyebrows in amusement.

 

“Touché.”

 

* * *

 

 

“How is school?” Thea asked Liza, who just shrugged as she picked at her burger.

 

Thea decided to take Liza to Big Belly Burger after her volunteer shift, hoping that whatever was going on with her niece was something that maybe she would talk to about with someone who wasn’t her parent.

 

“Fine.”

 

“Are you excited about prom?” Thea tried again, “It should be fun. I’ll take you out dress shopping if you want. I didn’t go to mine.”

 

“You didn’t?” Liza briefly glanced up at Thea.

 

“Nope. I was just lucky I graduated, I guess. Didn’t walk either.”

 

“And your mom was okay with that?”

 

Thea shrugged, “She didn’t really get a say, since she was in jail at the time. Your dad sort of took off after that for awhile, and your Uncle Tommy was dead… so even if I wanted too, there was no one to watch me walk.”

 

“Oh,” Liza muttered, worrying her bottom lip, “I don’t think I’m going to get away with that.”

 

“Do you not want to go to your graduation?”

 

Liza shrugged again, shifting her eyes towards her food again, “I just want to be done with high school.”

 

Thea forced herself not roll her eyes, talking to Liza when she was being evasive was much like talking to Oliver, which meant she was basically talking to a brick wall.

 

“Any reason why?”

 

“Did my parents ask you to talk to me?” Liza muttered bitterly, while Thea cursed herself for pushing her a little too hard. “Why can’t everyone just like, leave me alone? What is with this constant need to be in my business? Can’t everyone just accept that there are things I just don’t want to talk about, okay?”

 

“What things?” Thea asked slowly, hoping not to completely spook her.

 

Liza narrowed her eyes, pressing her lips together refusing to say anything.

 

“Hey, Liza Lilly, you can talk to me. I’m on your side. We all are.” She studied her for a while, watching as Liza’s eyes started to water.

 

“That’s the thing, Aunt Thea. I can’t.” It was barely louder then a whisper, but before she could even question her, Liza was taking off across the diner, “My teacher’s over there… I’m going to talk to her…”

 

“Liza!”

 

* * *

 

 

“Thanks for the ride Aunt Thea,” Thea muttered sarcastically to herself after Liza took off the moment they got into the house.

 

She tried talking to her after they left the dinner, but Liza had spent the whole ride home with her head in her phone.

 

“I swear I don’t know… oh, hey…” Lian stopped short under her aunt’s confused glance, “It’s you. I thought you were Mom or Dad… but your…you.”

 

Thea snorted, “What did Tommy do?”

 

Lian cringed slightly, “I can honestly say I have no idea where he is.”

 

“Isn’t he supposed be grounded for forever?” Thea countered raising her eyes, holding in the laughter at her niece’s panicked look, “Don’t worry, your secrets safe with me.”

 

Lian shuffled a little nervously, “Oh, um, thanks. Hey, can I ask you a question?”

 

“Yeah, of course.”

 

She didn’t say anything at first, but after a few seconds asked, “You knew Roy right?”

 

“Roy?” Thea knew Lian rarely asked about him, and the few times her parents did bring him up Lian would causally blow it off. “Yeah, I…”

 

She didn’t even know how to explain him to her.

 

There had been other men over the years, including a husband, but none of them had ever meant the same to her as Roy had. She still thought about him everyday, and the fact they hadn’t seen or heard from him since he left Lian with Ollie and Felicity almost twelve years ago, saying goodbye the way he did, like he wasn’t expecting to see the next day, didn’t help at all.

 

She doubted she would ever see him again, and that hurt more anything ever could.

 

“Yeah, I knew him. Why?”

 

Lian looked like she wanted to ask her something, anything, but instead shrugged, “Just wondering. I’m going to my homework.”

 

Thea watched as she fled the room, knowing that Lian wanting to her homework was more than enough to be suspicious.

 

Maybe it was a good thing she never had any children of her own; Oliver’s were enough to deal with sometimes.


	4. Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lack of sleep was almost his penitence for keeping something from her. He kept telling himself that this particular secret was okay, because it was the only thing he kept to himself. 
> 
> (aka Will is more like his father then he realizes).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I had fluff to post today... along with many other Americans, I'm still in shock...but this is not that chapter. 
> 
> I had always intended for Will's arch to mirror Oliver's. He isn't prefect, and clearly he has some 'daddy' issues he needs to work through (in more then one way). Don't worry he's going to eventually face them. Also, I know zero percent about baseball, and I actually wrote this before the world series ended. I really don't mean to offend anyone.

“You okay boss?”

 

Will rolled his eyes, as he grabbed the file Lisa handed him. He put up with Lisa’s constant ribbing because she did it out of affection, while the rest of the senior staff did it because they were assholes and resented the fact the Taylor liked him, especially his actual boss. Taylor had thought hiring a TV celebrity doctor would fix the hospital’s image, although everyone knew the guy had been fired from the show because of a medical scandal. He was still waiting for the fallout from that. “Yeah. Late night.”

 

“I though you had the past two days off?”

 

He rubbed at his eyes, “Insomnia.”

 

Thankfully Lisa didn’t push, because he wouldn’t have had an answer for that.

_Will, I’m pregnant._

_You’re going to be a dad._

_Dad._

_Father._

The worlds had been haunting his sleep since Haley had uttered them three days ago.

 

Before finding out about his father, Will had looked forward to parenthood, but his parent’s lies had taken that away from him too.

 

How could he be a parent when his mother and father had decided to lie to him for eighteen years, (twenty-four if you counted the years after he was supposed to know about his dad, and his mother decided not to tell him)? His father decided to remove himself from his life, even if he had only intended it to be just for ten years, and his mother had decided she wasn’t going to let him be involved at all, even when he was an adult who could make his own decisions.

 

Better yet, his mother had flat out lied about his father. It wasn’t like Will had never asked her about him. When he was younger it hadn’t really bothered him too much, but as he started applying for colleges, he had asked her about him, and she had avoided the subject. He didn’t really realize how much until now.

 

He couldn’t even be mad at her, because despite the lies, he’d do anything to see her again.

 

However, he could be mad at his dad. Will only vaguely remembered his mother’s friend ‘Oliver’ visiting a few times when he was eight. Honestly the only thing he really remembered was moving in the middle of the school year, and having to join a new little league team, and how much shit he had given his mom at the time about it.

 

But he definitely remembered being kidnapped and the Green Arrow saving him.

 

He remembered being obsessed, and carrying that stupid action figure around. He remembered almost loosing it in a motel room in Boise, and refusing to talk to his mother until she drove two hours back around to get it back. He remembered stealing her phone once, and killing all of her data googling any info on the Green Arrow he could find.

 

Eight year old Will would have died of happiness if he knew who his father was, twenty-four year old Will had been angry, confused, and to be honest, twenty-nine year old Will wasn’t doing much better.

 

He couldn’t tell his wife any of that, partly because he never told her about his dad to start with. Haley had asked once, when they first started dating two years ago, and he had successfully struggled the topic off, with, “My mom never talked about him.”

 

It wasn’t technically a lie, although that didn’t do anything to curb the guilt.

 

The lack of sleep was almost his penitence for keeping something from her. He kept telling himself that this particular secret was okay, because it was the only thing he kept to himself.

 

But he was clearly lying to himself.

 

“Well, don’t buy any coffee from the cafeteria. Taylor has gotten cheap. It’s mostly water with like two coffee beans thrown in. That won’t keep you awake at all.”

 

“Thanks,” He muttered in return, flipping though the file.

 

“Ugh,” Lisa groaned as the head of night shift strolled over to them, “I thought Doctor Tooldick was off tonight.”

 

Dr. Bowen glared over Will and the rest of the staff lingering near reception, “There was a shooting in the Glades. We need to prepare the triage for incoming. Clayton, get over here.”

 

Another one of the nurses, Melina, leaned over not caring if she was interrupting, “I heard the Green Arrow was involved. I wouldn’t mind treating him. I’ve always liked my men in leather.”

 

“Yeah,” Lisa added testily, “We all know about your Christian Grey fantasies. But unless the Green Arrow actually walks into the ER, I don’t really don’t want to hear about it.”

 

Melina flipped her off, “Just don’t ask for my handcuffs later.”

 

Yeah, _none_ of that made Will uncomfortable. Nor did any of the weird websites he found dedicated to the Green Arrow.

 

It was definitely a strange introduction to fanfiction, and the reason he spent one spring break in a drunken stupor trying to forget some of the things he read.

 

“Triage now!”

 

“Yes, Doctor Tooldick,” Lisa muttered under her voice, rolling her eyes, “Twenty on him disappearing on an _‘important phone call’_ just before the EMTs get here.”

 

“Thirty on him disappearing within the next three minutes,” Melina challenged.

 

* * *

 

 “You okay?” Haley asked; dragging her fingers though his hair, “You’ve been a little a weird the last few weeks.”

 

“I’m just not used to working the night shift yet,” He muttered, resting his head against the booth at Big Belly Burger, closing his eyes trying to ignore the pit of guilt that had taken up permanent resident in his chest. “And Doctor Tooldick… is well being Doctor Tooldick.”

 

Unsurprising, Melina had won the bet. Tooldick had claimed he had a _‘very important, time sensitive’_ matter to handle and couldn’t help out in the E.R. Will hoped Taylor would come to her senses soon, and hire an actual doctor to run the shift, or at the very least someone who would actually try to help the patients.

 

She snorted, “Are you five?”

 

Will found himself able to smile, if only because of the distraction, “Lisa and Melina call him that. It’s just kind of stuck.”

 

“Should I be worried that all the nurses in the hospital flock around you?” She asked jokingly.

 

“Mmm. I’m totally going to start something with Lisa when her wife could completely kick my ass, and you know how much I love the stuff Melina is into.” He had to shake his head, as he remembered her comments on the Green Arrow. They hadn’t ended after the EMT’s arrived; she made a huge show about it later on in the break room. Apparently she had been treating one the shooters, who kept going on about the Green Arrow, and Melina had eaten it all up.

 

“If she doesn’t shut up within the next three minutes, I will personally track down the Green Arrow, and ask him to shoot her with an arrow,” Lisa had muttered in return.

 

“Don’t say that. Unless you want her to comment on Green Arrow’s …. arrows,” Another nurse grumbled between bites of his sandwich.

 

“Bite your tongue!” She spat out in disgust.

 

“We all have our fetishes,” Haley muttered absentmindedly after awhile, “I had a boyfriend in college who loved it when it when I went down on….”

 

He sat up straight, banging his head on the back of the booth, sputtering, “What?!”

 

She laughed as he rolled his eyes at her, “You do realize I had a sex life before you right?”

 

“Yeah, I know that,” Will muttered knowing he had walked right into her teasing, “I just don’t like to think about it.”

 

“You’re an idiot,” She grinned back reaching over to steal a fry off his plate, “What about your history, huh?”

 

He rolled his eyes, “You know there was only Kelly… and you. The last one, you know if I’m being honest, I’d give it about an eight… could do with a little improve…. Oww!”

 

Haley lightly punched him in the arm, “Really just Kelly? No one else? I mean… you guys had been broken up for awhile before we met.”

 

Will shook his head, “No, we broke up around the time my mom died, so I decided to just really focus on school. There wasn’t anyone until I met you.”

 

“But you were together for nearly a decade, I just wonder…”

 

“Hey,” He reached out, grabbing her hand, “What’s with the questions about Kelly? I haven’t heard from her since we broke up.”

 

“Hormones?” Haley shrugged unconvincingly, “I don’t know. You just don’t talk much about your past. I know more about your thoughts on the Chicago Cubs then I do about your mom or…”

 

“I hate the Chicago Cubs,” He muttered irritably, causing Haley to huff a bit in annoyance.

 

“The Cardinals, I know, and I also know you’re a pretty private person, Will. But we’re having a baby.”

 

_Baby._

 

“And that means you need to know about my past partners?”

 

“Well, no, that’s definitely the hormones. I’m pretty irrationally angry over nothing… constantly. I’m still angry at the stupid boy’s JV lacrosse coach for stealing the last donut at lunch. She’s so going down.”

 

Will raised his eyebrows in alarm, “I thought you and Nisha were friends. Didn’t you invite her over for dinner once?”

 

“Like I said, irrationally angry.”

 

“I promise I’ll answer any questions you want to know, okay?” He assured her although he silently was dreading it. He had already dug himself a hole, and no matter how he handled this, he was just digging himself deeper.

 

“Ms. Albright?” A voice broke though, and Will took a slight breath of relief, although it was only a second before he realized who it was.

 

“Liza, hey!” Haley shifted next him, turning to introduce her, although Will already knew she was. “This is Liza Queen, one of the few students in my class who actually bothers to reads the assigned books.”

 

“Yep,” Liza muttered a bit sarcastically, “Love Shakespeare. Favorite. Playwright, _ever_.”

 

“I agree, I was thinking we should add Othello to the …”

 

“Oh god no,” Liza breathed out, “Please don’t.”

 

“Don’t worry,” Haley snorted, “I’m planning on moving on to Dostoevsky next.”

 

Liza rolled her eyes half-hardy, “Russian. Awesome. Can’t wait.”

 

“I’m going to wait in the car,” Will interrupted before pushing himself out of the booth, hoping to calm his nerves, “I’m not feeling okay.” When Haley looked like she was about to follow, he shook her off, “Stay and talk. I’ll take a nap in the car.”

 

Of course his wife was his secret sister’s teacher.

 

He was so screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: Felicity discovers something.


	5. William

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They didn’t have the best track record when it came this subject, which sounded terrible when considering the subject was a person. His son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I've actually had this chapter (and the next) written for awhile, I just haven't had a chance to post it yet. I work in retail, so it feels like I'm living at my job right now (I actually worked everyday Black Friday week including two overnight shifts), and I then I made the stupid decision to join a committee at church back in September, so that has been taking up a lot of my time too. Yeah, never join committees at church. Bad idea. 
> 
> I'm not going to lie the idea of Tommy Merlyn being a doctor in another life kind of inspired Will being a doctor in this story. The only medical drama I've seen (besides House obviously) is the Night Shift. I have no idea why I get so involved in that show during the summer. Point is, I loved that little call out in the Arrow 100.

“So everything is okay?” Felicity was aware that she had already asked the doctor and now the nurse that question about ten times, and that Lian was rolling her eyes in embarrassment but she couldn’t help herself.

 

She had never been particularly calm when her babies got hurt, probably because she was consistently worried that one of them was going to follow in Oliver’s footsteps, especially if she had a twelve year old already trying to parkour up the side of the garage.

 

“Yep, Clayton did a good job resetting it, not that I’m surprised,” The nurse, Lisa, smiled up as she flipped though a chart, “Will is one of Starling General’s best. We still aren’t sure how we got so lucky. I’m hoping he sticks around after his residency is over.”

 

Felicity blinked, “I’m sorry. What was the original physicians name?”

 

“Mommmm,” Lian wined sighing loudly, “Omg. Stop.”

 

“William Clayton,” The nurse paused, “Is everything alright?”

 

She laughed unconvincingly, her daughter sending her a confused look, probably thinking she was crazy person, not that Felicity could really blame her: she was acting pretty crazy. “Sure. Just wanted to know his name in case I wanted to fill out a survey.”

 

“There is an evaluation form included in the paperwork I just gave you.” She pointed out, thankfully not commenting at her odd behavior, hopefully just thinking she was an overprotective parent.

 

“Yeah, of course there is.”

 

She tired to push it to the back of her head during the rest of Lian’s appointment, probably asking more unnecessary questions, leaving her daughter to roll her whole head this time.

 

“Let’s get you back to school.”

 

“Do I have too?” Lian grumbled sulking into the car, “I only have like three hours left. Can’t I just come to work with you?”

 

“Lian,” Felicity started, but Lian just pushed out her bottom lip, in an exaggerated pout. If it had been her other parent, it probably would have worked, Oliver tended to be a giant pushover when it came to the kids, but Felicity rarely fell for the act.  

 

“Mom, please?”

 

But today she didn’t want to fight with her; all she really wanted to do was get back to her office, so she could hack into the hospital’s personae files. Part of her wished it was a giant coincidence, but her experience had taught her that these kinds of coincidences rarely existed.

 

Which meant that Oliver’s son was in Star City, and had been for a while, and that meant something. It had too.

 

She had offered to track him down over the years, but Oliver remained firm on his decision to respect Samantha’s wishes for him to stay away and letting Will decide for himself.

 

He tried to pretend the fact that Will had never gotten in contact after his eighteen birthday didn’t hurt him as much did but Felicity knew it had killed him. Just like every day that had passed since he made the decision to let him go.

 

He had taken the decade of radio silence as a sign that Will didn’t want anything to do with him, and knowing him as she did, he probably thought he deserved it. Of course he didn’t, just like he didn’t deserve to have been lied to in the first place.

 

She’s really not surprised at Moira, but if Tommy ever got a girl pregnant she sure as hell wasn’t going to pay anyone off. That idiot was going to handle that situation himself.

 

“Mom?” Lian’s voice broke though her thoughts, and her daughter was still looking at her hopefully. “Please?! I promise I won’t bother you.”

 

Felicity raised her eyebrows huffing a little, “Yeah, you won’t bother me, but you’ll bother Curtis. He’s still pissed about the time Tommy and you almost set his lab on fire.”

 

Lian rolled her eyes, “That was Tommy’s fault.”

 

“Oh, I’m sure it was all Tommy’s fault,” Felicity muttered in return, knowing for a fact it hadn’t been Tommy’s fault, especially after Curtis had showed her the security footage. Not that Tommy was at all innocent; she knew he was egging her on the whole time.

 

(Three years later and Curtis still hasn’t let it go).

 

“What if I promise not to bother anyone, _and_ do my homework?”

 

If she hadn’t been driving she would have sent her daughter an unbelieving look, Lian never volunteered to do her homework; which meant she really didn’t want to go to school.

 

“Fine.”

 

“Yes!” Lian fist pumped.

 

Felicity sighed; sometimes she wished her daughter was as excited to go to school as she was to get out of it.

 

Lian had kept firm on her promise to do her homework, crashing into the couch in Felicity’s office, focused on her math homework, as Felicity pulled up the files.

 

She had to hold back her reaction, but there was no denying it.

 

The jaw line, the nose, his eye color, it was all Oliver.

 

It was his son.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be school?”

 

Felicity glanced over to the doorway of her office, chewing on her nails nervously, as Oliver leaned down to kiss Lian on the side of the head.

 

“Mom let me skip.”

 

Oliver raised his eyebrows in Felicity’s direction, “Really? That doesn’t sound like mom.”

 

“I think my promise to do my homework won her over, “ Lian explained a little too casually, as if she hadn’t been planning it since Felicity had pulled her out of school that morning. “Shocked her into saying yes.”

 

“Hmmm. You’re probably right. How’s the arm?”

 

“It feels weird because of the muscle atrophy. But that’s normal. I have to do these little exercises and stuff. The doctor was saying… it was actually kind of interesting….”

 

“Thinking of career in medicine?” Oliver chuckled, “Hon, we might have a doctor in the family one day.”

 

_They already had one._

“Lian!” Felicity shouted causing both her husband and daughter to look over at her in alarm. She dug though her purse and pulling some money walked over to them before shoving it Lian’s hand. “Why don’t you go to the vending machine on the fifth floor and get a snack? I need to talk to your dad.”

 

“The fifth floor? There’s one just down the…”

 

“It has to be the one on the fifth floor… and stay away from Curtis!”

 

After Lian had let the room, Oliver turned to her in concern, hands already on her shoulders. “What’s going on?”

 

She bit down on her lip again, “Oliver, I need to tell you something. This is kind of hard to say…”

 

He was already on the defense, “Was everything alright the hospital?”

 

“No… “ She shook her head, although judging by the look of terror on his face, she needed to clarify herself, “No, not that! I mean, Lian’s fine but… I swear I wasn’t even looking into it…”

 

“But….”

 

For a moment she wished she didn’t have tell him. They didn’t have the best track record when it came this subject, which sounded terrible when considering the subject was a person. His son. But it had been Oliver’s lies over William that broke them apart years ago, and it had taken them awhile to find their way back to each other after that. It was still a sore subject, and not without it’s fights over the years.

 

“It’s about William.”

 

He pulled his hands back, already on the defense, “Felicity, I told you, I don’t want…”

 

“He’s here. In Star City.”

 

Oliver stumbled back a bit, before landing on the couch behind him, “He’s here?”

 

“He’s a second year resident at Starling General. Emergency Medicine. He actually treated Lian the first time around… I’m not sure how we missed that. The nurses at the hospital seem to love him. Lian’s nurse couldn’t stop praising him.”

 

She knew her blabbing was probably not helping, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“He’s been the city for at least two years,” She swallowed nervously, “Moved here right after graduating from Ivy Town College. Top of his class.”

 

“Two years?” He repeated without any inflection.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Oliver stood up, “Can you pick up Ro from school?”

 

“Sure?”

 

“I need some space,” He muttered before stalking out of her office. 

 

* * *

 

 

“You okay?” She asked from were she was sitting at the counter as he walked into the kitchen around ten, “I texted you earlier.”

 

Oliver leaned over pecking her on the lips, “Sorry, didn’t realize how late it was until Rory found me in the bunker.”

 

“It’s okay,” Felicity mumbled setting her tablet down knowing he probably needed a distraction right now, “But your going to have to apologize to the kids, I had to order pizza.”

 

“What kids don’t like pizza?” He crinkled his eyebrows, “Thea and I always freaked out when our parents would let us order it.”

 

“Ours apparently. Spoiled by grommet meals cooked by their father. God forbid I make them eat the boxed mac and cheese. That’s all mom feed me when I was little. That and half frozen chicken nuggets… “ She winkled her nose, “And stale nachos from the bar… point is I turned out fine. These kids are just spoiled. They expect homemade mac and cheese.”

 

He snorted but she could tell he was still distracted, “Then they are in a rude awakening when they have to go off to school and all they get is ramen.”

 

She sighed, “We can’t be old enough to have kids in college.”

 

“But I’m old enough to have a son who graduated from med school, “ Oliver muttered morosely.

 

“Do you know what you want to do?”

 

He shook his head before sinking into the stool next to her, “No idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week (ish): Tommy.


	6. Tommy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He had tried to act like it wasn’t bothering him, not allowing the old man the satisfaction, but by lunch time, he was trying to map an escape route out of City Hall, and his dad knew it.

Tommy had to hand it to his parents; they had this punishment thing down. In response to his latest _“antics”, (_ as growled by his mother two days ago), he had been forced to spend the day with his dad, sitting in on mundane city budget meetings, listening to three hour long conference calls, and having his father’s ancient assistant pinch his cheeks numerous times as she shared embarrassing stories of him as a toddler, all while his dad just stood there smirking, because he took Tommy’s tablet away.

 

(He tired using the _‘I need it for class excuse’_ but somehow they found out he was technically on spring break).

 

He had tried to act like it wasn’t bothering him, not allowing the old man the satisfaction, but by lunch time, he was trying to map an escape route out of City Hall, and his dad knew it.

 

“You okay Tommy?” His dad asked with the ghost of a smile on his lips after Mrs. Keen pinched his cheeks yet again.

 

Tommy rubbed at them hoping that it would stop the stinging although he suspected it was just making it worse. “Forget stabbing people with arrows, just send her after all the criminals. This hurts like a bitch.”

 

“She’s eighty nine, Tommy.”

 

“She’s had plenty time to practice then,” He muttered bitterly, sending her a death stare though the wall as he picked at his lunch.

 

“Mr. Queen.”

 

Tommy bolted up, as her voice echoed in the room, nearly knocking his food all over the floor.

 

“Yes, Mrs. Keen?” His dad answered snorting at Tommy’s almost comedic reaction, as Tommy pouted before sliding back into the chair.

 

“Starling City Prep called, they’d like you to stop by at your earliest convenience.”

 

His father gritted his teeth, his jaw doing that menacing thing Tommy was glad he wasn’t currently on the other side of, “Did they happened to mention why?”

 

“No sir.”

 

“Bet Lian fell asleep in class,” Tommy said, mouth full of fries, “Or forgot to turn her homework in again.” He shrugged as his father sent an annoyed look in his direction. “I know she didn’t do her homework last night because she stole my _Star Wars_ box set, and then threw her biology book at me when I tried to get it back. The book is still on my bedroom floor, so I doubt she was doing any studying.”

 

“Tommy…” His father ran his hand down his face, wearily. Tommy knew he wasn’t irate at him, but he definitely wasn’t helping.

 

“I’ll give her the book back if that helps,” He offered, although he doubted that Lian was going to listen to him either.

 

And to be honest, he didn’t want to give her the book back. Lian came off as a sarcastic pre-teen to everyone else, but he knew better, his little sister could be scary as hell, and that wasn’t even including her terrifying glare.

 

“Do you know what would be funny?” Tommy mused, trying to break his dad out of one his incoming broody moods, “If I hacked into Palmer’s super suit, and played a round of ‘Why are you hitting yourself?”

 

The snort that came out of his Dad’s mouth wasn’t as disguised as he thought it was, “I told you to stop calling him Palmer.”

 

“It’s his name. Am I supposed to call him Ray? That’s weird.”

 

“Your mother is going to make me sleep on the couch for this.”

 

Tommy shrugged kicking his feet up on his Dad’s desk, “It’s surprisingly easy to hack into that suit. He should update his security software. Maybe I should program it to fly him to Antarctica. He could befriend some penguins.”

 

“Tommy, “ His dad started, as he nudged Tommy’s feet off his desk, “Have you ever thought that it’s just these sort of things that keep getting you in trouble?”

 

“Nah,” Tommy grinned back, “You just don’t want Mom to get mad at you because I was being mean to her ex-boyfriend, and it would somehow be your fault like always.”

 

“Eat your lunch.”

 

* * *

 

 “Did you fall asleep in class again?” Tommy asked Lian who flopped into the chairs outside of the headmaster’s office.

 

“You can’t expect me not fall asleep in class when all my teachers sound like Professor Binns.”

 

“Oh, look its Loser Queen!”

 

Tommy burrowed his eyebrows, as a teenage boy stalked down the hallway towards them. He was wearing the typical Starling Prep uniform, but the air of superior he was carrying around was probably not regulation.

 

“Ugh,” Lian groaned, “Colton Fuller. He’s such a dick.”

 

Tommy glanced over at Lian, who didn’t look so much upset as she did annoyed. He didn’t blame her, he had no idea who this kid was and he already wanted to punch him in the face.

 

“You finally found a friend, loser?” Colton smirked down at her, “Does he know how much of a loser you are?”

 

Lian rolled her eyes, “You say loser a lot. Do you know any other insults?”

 

Tommy tried not to snort, but the blank look on Fuller’s face made it pretty hard not too.

 

“Yeah, well,” Fuller paused, before finally something else to mock her over, since Lian apparently wasn’t behaving the way he wanted, “What about your sister huh? Everyone knows how ‘loose’ she is. How many boyfriends has she had this year?”

 

Lian made a predatory growling sound, instantly standing up next to Tommy, who swung his arm back to keep her from pouncing on him. They may have given Liza a hard time but that didn’t give anyone permission to say anything about her, especially not the right to infer anything.

 

“Excuse me, Fuller right?” Tommy started pressing his lips together, trying that smile grimace thing that their Dad always did when he was being overly polite to prevent himself from knocking someone out, “What did you say?”

 

“I said, everyone knows how much of a slut Liza….”

 

“Yeah, I was really hoping that’s not what you were saying,” Tommy interrupted, face still set, “Because now that you’ve insulted my sister, you’re going to live to regret it.”

 

“And what are you going to do?” He tried to lean over Tommy as if to appear intimidating but considering he was maybe only a inch taller it was doing nothing, “What could you possibly…”

 

The stare off went on for a while and Tommy was determined not to loose.

 

The office door opened, as their Dad stepped out with the Headmaster, causing Fuller to flee.

 

“Coward,” Lian muttered from behind Tommy.

 

Their Dad glanced between both of them, “What are you two up too?”

 

They both shrugged trying to appear casual, as Tommy’s fingers literally itched for his tablet back. He could already imagine all the cyber justice he wanted, no, _needed_ to inflict on Fuller.

 

“Making friends,” He grinned back as Lian shrugged next to him, “It’s an outreach program. Befriending wayward trust fund dicks, and turning them into productive members of society.”

 

“Seriously,” Dad repeated once they got home after ringing out Lian for napping during Algebra again, “I’m not sure what that was back at the school. But behave.”

 

“Hmm, you know behave is my middle name, right?”

 

Dad rolled his eyes, “It’s John, Tommy. Behave isn’t even in your vocabulary.”

 

“Well, It is now. Promise,” Tommy grinned, crossing his fingers behind his back, as he grabbed Lian’s arm, trying to sneak up the stairs before his father attempted to question them any further.

 

She followed Tommy back to his room, the gleam of anger not completely out her eyes yet, “I didn’t know people were saying anything about her or I would have kicked everyone’s ass already. No wonder she’s being a giant drama queen.”

 

“Yeah,” He muttered back, feeling pretty guilty, realizing that Liza was dealing with some stuff they had no idea about, and now knowing that they were, there was no way they were going to keep letting it happen.

 

“And slut shaming is just lame, “ Lian added, “Like, really lame.”

 

“Do you even know what slut shaming is?” Tommy questioned before realizing that it was a dumb idea after Lian glared in his direction.

 

“I’m _twelve_ , Tommy. I know that amount of people a person has sex with shouldn’t matter. It’s stupid. Why do people even care?”

 

“I don’t know, people are stupid,” He muttered in return, because honestly people were stupid, especially high-schoolers at that stupid Prep school. Part of him was thankful that he had basically been kicked out of that school when he was like seven, but the larger part of him wanted to be there to help his sisters from what appeared to be a rabid pack of snotty judgmental entitled kids. “What are we going to do about that Fuller kid?”

 

“I’m not going to bully him in response to being a bully.”

 

He wanted to scream at her. “Then what do you suggest we do?”

 

Lian shrugged, “Be nice?”

 

“To Fuller?”

 

“Fuck no, I meant Liza.” She muttered as she walked out of his room as if that was the end of the subject.

 

It was, honestly.

 

* * *

 

 

Although Lian had told him to drop it, Tommy still went through Colton Fuller’s social media accounts, keeping a mental list of potential ways to destroy him in the case of emergency. Although so far the only thing Fuller had really posted online was his love for his stupid car.

 

“Are you trying to give your father an aneurysm?”

 

He glanced up from his computer to see his mom leaning in the doorway.

 

“Why would I ever do such a thing to my dear old dad? That would be cruel, considering he’s getting up there in years.”

 

“He’s fifty-one Tommy, that’s hardily ancient. Seriously, he’s convinced your planning something,” She tilted her head sideways, “Do we need to have another conversion? We’ve talked about it. If you keep acting up we’re going to have you locked up in the pipeline.”

 

“Okay one, child abuse. Two, I can tell you with a hundred percent certainty I’m currently not up to anything. I was going to do something but Lian wouldn’t let me.” Tommy rolled his eyes; still wishing she would have at least let him have Fuller’s stupid vintage mustang towed or something, if not for public safely. Fuller was only fourteen; he really shouldn’t be driving the thing. “Had a crisis of conscious or something.”

 

His mom briefly shut her eyes, shaking her head looking confused, “Okay, words I never thought I’d would hear, but I’m glad I have.”

 

“Is dad okay?”

 

She visibly paused plastered a grin on her face that wasn’t all too convincing, “Why would you say that?”

 

Tommy shrugged trying to play off the fact that he was concerned, by _not_ trying to appear too concerned. “I don’t know, he’s being really moopy and broody.”

 

“Your father is always moopy and broody,” His mother countered.

 

“Yeah, but he’s being more moopy and broody then usual. Is everything okay?”

 

“If something wasn’t, we’d tell you okay?”

 

“Your not fighting or anything?” He asked too quickly before reminding himself that he was trying to play it cool.

 

Her eyes flew open, more panicked then he wanted her to be, “What? Why would you think that?”

 

“Lian said you sent her to the vending machine on the fifth floor. You only do that when you need to have a serious conversion.”

 

His mother shut her eyes briefly, “You’ve noticed that?”

 

Tommy tilted his head a bit, “Yeah. We might have noticed that you always send us to the vending machine on the fifth floor when you get into a fight with Dad.”

 

She took another step into his room, grabbing his computer chair and forcing him to look at her, “At this point there is literally nothing that could separate your father and I… well except death. “ She paused, “Oh, god, no one is dying I swear.”

 

“So everything is fine?”

 

“Yea of course.”

 

He still didn’t believe her.

 

“You’re not seeing anyone right?”

 

He blinked, not sure how that subject came out of everything else they were talking about… but this was his mother.

 

Although she really didn’t need to worry about it, there was literally zero chance of him ever having … any person really. He was pretty sure he’d end up the weird uncle everyone suspected married a computer.

 

“No… are you trying to give ‘the talk’? Because dad has given me like ten of those already. I think he’s trying to over compensate for the fact he used to be a giant manwhore, because I’m pretty sure I know all the basics at this point. Respect your partner. Seriously, respect your partner. They say no, back off. Use protection. Always use protection, no matter what anyone says. Don’t do it in a cloak room during a rehearsal dinner with the bride when you’re not the groom.”

 

“What?” She burrowed her eyes, seemly confused.

“Dad tends to be a little too honest with his talks, “ Tommy muttered because really there was a difference between sharing the wisdom of his old age, and just plain unnecessary over sharing.

 

“You know what?” She shook her head backing out of his room, “I don’t want to know.”

 

It was probably for the best, it was enough Tommy had to sit though his dad’s ‘ _talks’_ , there was no reason to subject his mother them either.


End file.
